Blast from the past: Google lets you go back in time with new Street View feature

Google’s new time machine tool lets you see how the 2011 Japan earthquake affected cities like Onagawa. Photos via Google.

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, Google’s new Street View feature is something to check out.

Google today debuted a fun tool that lets users see the growth — or destruction — of buildings around the world since 2007. For example, you can see a digital timeline of the Freedom Tower’s construction, or the deterioration of Onagawa, Japan after the horrible 2011 earthquake and tsunami. You’ll also be able to see how locations change with different seasons.

To access the new feature, click on the clock icon in the upper left-hand portion of certain Street View images. From there, you can move the slider through time and click the thumbnails to explore places as they looked in the past.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the tool will work in every location where Street View has recorded imagery. Cities will have more “time slices,” to go through, while other locations will have two or three images from the past.

The feature is rolling out around the world to desktop users today, though it’s not live for me yet. I’m looking forward to using this tool in the future, specifically to see how Seattle’s South Lake Union area changes once Amazon is done building out its massive campus.

Taylor Soper is a GeekWire staff reporter who covers a wide variety of tech assignments, including emerging startups in Seattle and Portland, the sharing economy and the intersection of technology and sports. Follow him @taylor_soper and email taylor@geekwire.com.